After five months of watching our female red wolf (1794) behaving with raw aggression towards our male (1784), watching her go through estrous with no change in her attitude towards the male, indeed being more aggressive at his approaches, and watching our male walk around the enclosure with his head hung low, our female has apparently had a change of heart. Anthropomorphic disclaimer notice. On Saturday morning, close to noon, both wolves were seen splashing around in the water,Read more
Posts tagged: #life and science
Bluebird Update 3.24.15
If you were to scan through the photos below and compare them to the photos from last week’s Bluebird Update you may notice similarities in the photos. There’s not been much progress in any of the nests. There are, though, two new developments to report. The nest box behind the Sailboat Pond in Catch the Wind has a fully executed chickadee nest within and a bluebird has shown at least fledgling interest in starting a nest at the Picnic DomeRead more
Snow – Geese
The water in the Wetlands, after several days of temps above freezing, has thawed a bit. A section of the pond on the far side of the Wetlands is open. Our two visiting geese, who have been absent since the beginning of last week due to the complete freeze up of the Wetlands at the time, are back. They must have flown over, spotted the open water and dropped in. Snowing as it is this morning (unexpectedly snowing), aRead more
Nest Box Clean-up and Mix-up
If you’ve ever been in Explore the Wild and looked out over our Wetlands here at the Museum you may have noticed that there are two wood duck nest boxes planted there. One is on the far side of the Wetlands, the other on a small island about halfway across the water. The nest boxes are there in an attempt to convince a pair or two of the hooded mergansers that winter here at the Museum into stayingRead more
Waterfowl
The waterfowl situation here at the Museum has been sketchy as of late. With the shallow water being frozen at least some of the early morning hours, the groups of mergansers that we experienced earlier in the season have disappeared. They’ve apparently found better ponds and lakes to catch fish and socialize. Two mergansers, however, seem loyal to our site. It’s difficult to determine if the pair is indeed the same two mergs that I regularly see here inRead more
Into the Darkness
I happened to be at the Red Wolf Overlook late in the day on January 31 when I noticed the female sniffing around the entrance to the man-made den inside the wolf enclosure. The den is in the enclosure to facilitate the birthing and rearing of pups, should our wolves successfully mate this season. The entrance is directly in front of the overlook. There is a camera mounted on the ceiling inside the den. Our previous male red wolf (#1414)Read more
A Fine Day…Week
The last several days have been quite pleasant. The local fauna have been responding to the uncharacteristically mild nature of our current meteorological situation. In other words, it’s been real nice outside lately and some of our resident wildlife are taking advantage of that niceness. Come on out and enjoy some of this fine weather yourself, you never know when it’s going to rain, snow, sleet, or worse, so get it while you can. See youRead more
What’s all the ruckus?
As the red wolves relaxed, two male yellow-bellied sapsuckers, one of them a young bird, began to scuffle over who the trees inside the wolf enclosure actually belong to. The woodpeckers chased each other around the trees, flying back and forth, shuffling around and around the tree trunks. The female wolf carefully watched the fracas. At one point, the sapsuckers took off in aerial combat, fluttering to the ground. The wolf was up andRead more
Duck Dance and Snowy Owl Update
If you haven’t been down to the Museum’s Wetlands lately you should make a point of doing so. As I’ve mentioned several times in the last few weeks, the merganser numbers have increased. I’ve not seen as many of these magnificently plumaged birds in our Wetlands in the past 7 years. And, they’re putting on quite a show. Pair bond displays are taking center stage out on the water. Sounds of splashing water and the rolling, croaking,Read more